| Description | The Clean Energy Revolution Has (Finally) Begun The clean energy research and deployment agenda can greatly facilitate the movement to a just and inclusive society. In this work I highlight both theoretical and implementation strategies that are built around key synergies between clean energy and water, and social justice (Casillas and Kammen, 2010). This nexus opens important new avenues for use-inspired basic and applied research. In this paper we draw on research on energy access in East Africa and Southeast Asia, where the majority of the roughly 800 million people without electricity access live today, and on efforts worldwide to transition electricity systems to ones powered entirely green, sustainable, energy sources. In the United States, California, New Mexico, and New York (over 40% of national GDP) have committed to a 100% renewable energy future (by ~ 2045). Overseas an increasing number of nations and subnational regions (see, e.g. the Under2 Coalition: www.under2coalition.org) have committed to this goal. We explore the synergies between a green economy and social equity. We find that it is either impossible, or far more difficult and costly, to design, socialize, and implement the needed energy transition to meet climate goals without making equity a co-equal goal. We draw on cases ranging from solar energy and electric vehicle deployment in low-income communities (Sunter, Casillas and Kammen, 2019), to promoting social justice and economic opportunities for women and oppressed minority groups through distributed clean-energy powered mini-grids, to the integration of climate friendly housing and transportation policies (Wiener and Kammen, 2019). This work provides strong evidence of the economic benefits of integrated design of infrastructure and policy around the co-benefits of between social and environmental goals. Casillas, Christian and Kammen, Daniel M (2010) “The energy-poverty-climate nexus,” Science, 330, 1182 – 1182. Sunter, Deborah, Castellanos, Sergio, and Daniel M Kammen (2019) “Disparities in rooftop photovoltaics deployment in the United States by race and ethnicity,“ Nature Sustainability, 2, 71 – 76.
Wiener, Scott and Daniel M Kammen (2019) “For U. S. cities, housing policy is climate policy”, The New York Times, March 25, 2019. |
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